President Obama and Valuable Caution With Iraq

BBSNews 2014-09-17 — News reports say that Faleh Al-Fayad, the Iraqi National Security Advisor has briefed the Bashar al Assad administration in Syria about efforts to contain Islamic State. Fayad was appointed to the position in 2011 by then Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

According to Wikileaks, the intelligence gathering operation Stratfor had an email buzz about the appointment on June 7th, 2011. The first Stratfor operative posted a straight news story about the appointment. Then a second asked “any idea on his views towards US-SOFA renegotiation or Iran?” A third chimed in writing “He has to be a Shia who is close to Iran.”

According to Army Recognition, a “defense / weapons” industry marketing company in 2012:

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said Iran attaches much importance to its ties with Iraq, and stressed the necessity for further cooperation between the two neighboring countries in defense fields. Vahidi, heading a high-ranking delegation, arrived in Baghdad this morning in a bid to meet with Iraqi officials [including Faleh Al-Fayad ed.] and explore avenues for the further expansion of defense cooperation between the two sides…

In 2013, there was an announced human rights investigation against Fayad for alleged massacres of Iranian dissidents between 2011 and 2013:

Spain has declared that Mr. Faleh al-Fayad, the National Security Advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri-al-Maliki, is under investigation “for the alleged commission of offences against the international community.” The victims were Iranian dissidents. They were residents of Camp Ashraf and Camp Liberty, and members of the Iranian opposition movement, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).

The report goes on to say that:

The Spanish Court decided to initiate its investigation of Fayad based on an outstanding complaint against him as a person responsible for grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (GCIV) and First Additional Protocol. The complaint concerns Fayad’s position as Chairman of the “Ashraf Committee” attached to the office of Prime Minister al-Maliki, In particular, the court ruling, which was obtained by the website Iran News Update, cites Fayad’s “alleged involvement in the massacres of 8 April 2011 and 1 September 2013 of ‘protected persons’ under IV Geneva Convention residing in the city of Ashraf (Iraq),….in conjunction with the reported offences of 35 murders and 337 cases of willful injury on 8 April 2011 and 52 murders and 7 abductions on 1 September 2013, along with torture and bodily harm to Ashraf residents.”

And this with today’s news where the Washington Post reports that Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is poised to encourage President Obama to deploy U.S. Special Forces in Iraq against Islamic State.

Perhaps the caution that President Obama has exhibited is not misplaced.

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I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

"A census of Palestine conducted by the Mandatory government on 23 October 1922. Population figures in the census featured a breakdown by district of residence, religion, language and age.

The total population of Palestine was given as 757,182, of whom 590,890 (78%) were Muslims (“Mohammedans”), 83,794 (11%) Jews, 73,024 (9%) Christians and 9,474 others. The population of Jerusalem was given as 62,578, of whom 13,413 were Muslims, 33,971 Jews, 14,699 Christians and 495 others." From the report:

"In accordance with the provisions of the Proclamation of 1st September 1922, published in the Official Gazette of the same date, a census of Palestine was held on the night of the twenty-second -- twenty-third of October, 1922."

"(1) To those colonies and territories which as a consequence of the late war have ceased to be under the sovereignty of the States which formerly governed them and which are inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by themselves under the strenuous conditions of the modern world, there should be applied the principle that the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred trust of civilisation and that securities for the performance of this trust should be embodied in this Covenant...

(4) Certain communities formerly belonging to the Turkish Empire have reached a stage of development where their existence as independent nations can be provisionally recognized subject to the rendering of administrative advice and assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory..."

-- Avalon Project at Yale Law School, "The Covenant of the League of Nations, Including Amendments adopted to December, 1924, June 28th, 1919," Lillian Goldman Law Library. (accessed December 2nd, 2016).